Replacing gaps with digital silence

[janegil]

I just started using VinylStudio. Ripped Paavo Berglund's version of the Leningrad Symphony. With defaults, more than half the symphony was detected as gaps between tracks.

So far, I solved that by burning it as one track per LP side.

But more generally, I dislike the idea of removing anything from the middle of the recording. Is there anywhere I can set the default to be zero gap removed, and zero gap added?

The ends of the LP sides is another matter. Right now, I find it way cool to listen to the needle down on a CD, but I guess my enthusiasm for that will wear off. A fast fade in at the beginning and fade-out at the end might be nice.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

VinylStudio's 'Scan for Trackbreaks' feature does not work well for classical music.  Like all other software with this feature, it interprets passages below a certain loudness threshold as a trackbreak, which works fairly well for pop music but not for the classics.

Instead, put the trackbreaks in by hand.  If the album has track times prionted on the sleeve or label you can type those in, which makes the job a lot easier.  Click on 'Click here to add new tracks' in the Split Tracks window to get started.  And of course, you don't need to put trackbreaks in at all if you're not bothered about splitting up the LP side.

Adding the trackbreaks manually will also solve your problem with not wanting to leave any gaps.  Just don't put any in (which is the default anyway when you do things this way).  And if you want to preserve the needle drop / lift, uncheck 'Wait for needle down' in VinylStudio's Record window.  Or you can fade in the first track and fade out the last track if you care to.

Most of this (but not the needle drop stuff) is covered in the VinylStudio help file.

[janegil]

OK. I'm pretty sure I had wait for needle down checked. But the turntable, out from years in retirement, had become very slow in its lift damping. I guess the needle touched a bump on the previous rotation and triggered the recording before its final landing.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Ah, I see.  Sorry, I though you wanted to keep the needle drop.  My mistake. I will try again:

1.  Keep the 'Wait for needle down' box checked (ignore previous advice in this regard!).

2.  Record as you were doing before.

3.  When recording is complete, go to VinylStudio's Split Tracks window, add at least one track and then advance the first green start-of-track marker (by dragging it) until it is just before the start of the music. You can zoom in as necessary for precise adjustment, and this will also get rid of all that crackly leadin.

You can get rid of the leadout and needle lift at the end of the record by moving the last red end-of-track marker back a bit.  It's as easy as falling off a log, once you know how.  As for splitting tracks manually, a bit of experimentation should soon see you right.  Just ignore the automatic scan feature.  As I say, it is not well-suited to what you are trying to do.